Reviews for any metal and rock music

Six Feet Under – Torment

There’s plenty of household names when it comes down to death metal with there being a good deal of bands that absolutely dominate the scene constantly. Six Feet Under, whether you like them or not, is one of those bands. The legendary band has always been one of those “eh…” kind of groups for me because I like their style of death metal, but I’ve always felt it . . . lacking just a little somethin’ somethin’. I still don’t know what that something is, but holy fuck they have found it and used it profusely with all of “Torment”!

Okay, let’s start with the negatives that I found with “Torment”. First, the cover art is very blah as to me it looks like a shitty Resident Evil boss that got trashed almost as soon as it was made. The second negative thing would be . . . nonexistent! I’ve always been really nit-picky with every single album that I’ve ever heard from Six Feet Under, but “Torment” is different. Sure, it’s still got their signature sound of undeath that go hand in hand with the absolute guttural and illegible vocals, but just about every single track off this record sinks its meaty hooks into you to pull you into the bloody dungeon that is the remainder of “Torment”. It’s tracks like “The Separation of Flesh from Bone” and “Skeleton” that [for me] really show how outside of the box Six Feet Under were thinking when creating this record while still staying true to their roots of gory death metal that don’t relent for anything ever. Riffs permeate almost every piece to make at least some part of every track so tasty and so nasty that it’s very hard to look away from it unless you don’t like the style of songs themselves, which is fair enough. You’ve no idea the amount of restraint I’m partaking in to not call this the best record Six Feet Under has ever put out simply because I’m not someone who should be saying that, but I’ll be fucked sideways before I say that “Torment” is a bad album in any sort of way. In order to sum up the entirety of this album in one phrase would lead me to a very simple yet extremely fitting word: infectious.

Like I said, I’ve never really been huge into Six Feet Under only because they’ve never really appealed to me in a way that met my taste, but they’ve always had my respect as one of the most recognizable names in death metal. However, “Torment” is without a doubt the only Six Feet Under album to date that’s gotten a thumbs up out of me, and two at that! Should you be a long time fan or one who’s been meaning to get into these legendaries, I feel extremely confident in saying you’ll find plenty to enjoy out of “Torment”!